


Still Catch the Tide

by SassyLassy



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, M/M, Masturbation, Selkies, Sex, Transformation, Violence, mermaid, sex in the beach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2018-12-13 15:54:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11763279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassyLassy/pseuds/SassyLassy
Summary: The ocean is a holder of many secrets. Many of them chalked up as little more than stories of sea men and passed along through generations. But every story has a thorn of truth to it.





	1. Chapter 1

Mako's eyes opened in the middle of the night, his heart chilled to the very core. Shifting in his bed, mindful to not awaken the woman besides him, he slowly sits up. The window of their bedroom was open, bringing in a cool breeze that carried the scent of the salt of the ocean. He sat there in relative silence for all but a minute before swinging his legs out of the bed and, as carefully as he could, sneaked out of the room.

This was a trick and a half considering the man was over seven feet tall and was incredibly heavy. Yet despite this he managed, walking like a shadow down the hallway. 

Still wearing his pajama bottoms and nothing else, Mako stepped out into the crisp night air. The smell of the sea compelled him to move, moving as if in a trance and he couldn't not travel down through the small port town he called home at one in the morning to find himself at the pier he worked on.

The ocean lapped against the shore, up around the pier itself, and the smell of the sea flooded his senses. The large man stood, fists formed by his sides as he gazed longingly at the waves as they rippled and splashed. Just how long had it been since he'd been home? Several years? Yes, something like that. And, still, he could not return. How could he without--

There was a loud splashing, a thrashing sound that was coming from one of the many boats that were strung up at the pier. Mako's attention, at last, was shattered from the sea and he turned his head around. One of the nearest shipping boats was rocking slightly; the idiots hadn't put their nets away properly at all. One was sagging over into the ocean and it was obvious something had gotten stuck.

He walked towards the commotion. Maybe it was a dolphin, or a tuna who'd gotten lost. If it was the former, he'd let it go. The latter, well there's dinner. However when he climbed aboard the boat and grabbed the netting, when he yanked what he dragged out of the ocean was not a tuna nor a dolphin.

It was a man.

And a fish.

A merman who had gotten entangled in the netting. He was incredibly skinny, looked underfed, with wide open eyes and flaring fins that were torn and scarred. He was long too. Insanely long, something like fifteen feet and all of that length had been ensnared by the rope. His right arm was missing entirely from the forearm down and judging by the bite scars, he had most likely had a run in with a very hungry shark. In fact his entire right side looked like it had seen some kind of war. Scars, chunks of missing flesh that had long since grown over with scarring, torn fins; it was a wonder he could swim at all.

His lips pulled back in an open, honest snarl that revealed sharp, uneven teeth. Those large eyes became slits of pure malice and he hissed violently. He'd swipe with his arm but it was momentarily caught up in netting, as was the length of his body as well as his tail, and he couldn't pull himself free. This was all his own fault, of course. The net had smelt of food and fish and he hadn't had a decent meal in so long. Now one of these disgusting land dwelling--

No. 

No that wasn't right. His fins pushed back against his head, the merman gazing in stunned silence because he could tell already this wasn't one of those humans. Yes he looked like it, but there was an aura about him that sung of the sea. Of a life within the waves, swimming and diving, frolicking. A kindred spirit as you would, yet stuck as an ugly, awful land dwelling two legger. His fins relaxed, as did his eyes, and the warning snarl turned to a genuine smile.

"G'day!" he said brightly. "You wouldn't wanna help a bloke out 'n pull 'im free of these here nets now would ya?" the merman offered Mako the toothiest, most charming smile he possibly could.

"You're an idiot." Mako replied bluntly, slowly approaching the ensnared merman.

"Oi, that any way ta talk to a sea fairin' folk?" the merman would have offered to shake his hand but, still, his hand was wrapped up. "Name's Jamie! Well, Jamison, but Jamie for short."

"Only short thing 'bout you." the man said as he pulled the merman out of the water entirely and onto the deck. Jamie floundered, flailing himself around in the dryness of the night air. Thankfully he could survive out of the ocean; capable of breathing both water, and air, depending on whether or not his gills were open or not. Still he flailed, his one good arm still snagged up in the binding of the net. "Oarfish, huh?" Mako asked.

"You know your fish, mate." Jamie grinned toothily, watching the man warily as he fetched a knife that no doubt had gutted thousands of fish in its lifetime. Mako knelt down, wedged the knife among the netting and pulled. The knife was sharp, and it sliced through the net like a hot knife through butter. He cut, in silence, through the rope and soon enough the fifteen foot plus merman flopped free.

"Ahh!!" the merman sighed out loud, happily, as he finally outstretched. He'd been caught up in that awful net for far too long than he'd like to admit. He flopped onto his back, stretched out his two arms (well one arm and a half) out above his head as his long tail curled up and down. "Thanks mate, I owe ya!"

"Don't mention it." Mako said as he tossed the destroyed net back into the boat. He wasn't about to dump it over the side, only for another stupid idiot to get caught up in it. 

"Nah mate I mean it," Jamie rolled over onto his stomach, hoisting himself up by propping himself on his half elbow. "I woulda been snatched up by one of them local buffs 'n who knows what they'd do with me. You saved my scales 'n you know we merfolk don't mess 'round when it comes to stuff like that." the fins against where his ears would be, if he were human, flared open. "What's your name? The name of me savior?"

"...Mako." 

"Like the shark?" Jamie asked, his lip lifting with a bemused grin. "Now that's ironic considerin' you bein' what you are."

Mako shifted uncomfortably, and began to walk back along the pier towards the land. "Not ironic. Just a name."

"Nah I mean like. You bein' a selkie 'n-"

The large man was back on top of him a second later, a hand going to his mouth, covering it. The shock sent half of Jamie sliding right back into the ocean, though his torso remained up on the wooden pier. "SHHH." Mako hissed through the gap in his teeth. "Nobody knows that. Nobody 'round here knows that. Don't want your fat yap shouting it out."

Jamie pulled away from the mouth, spluttering a second, before frowning. "Oh yeah who's gonna hear me? The minnows?"

"Always someone around." Mako muttered, pulling back.

"...wait a sec." the merman tilted his head as he lowered himself more into the icy cold, comfortable water. "You... it's stolen, ain't it?" he asked. "Someone took it, didn't they? That's why you're out there 'n not in here!"

“Be. Quiet.” Mako warned again, his tone one of someone not to be trifled with whatsoever. With his impressive stance, his strong arms, and intimidating face anyone would listen to such an order if they had a brain in their heads.

Jamie, it seemed, did not have a good brain in his head whatsoever. “What why? Mate, there ain’t no one out here if there was I woulda been caught out faster than anything!” he pointed out. “I’d be chopped up, or dragged away, not left floundering in that there mess you found me in.”

Mako groaned. He’d never met a mermaid before, even when he was living in the depths of the ocean but he had to wonder if they were all as talky as this. All he’d known in his childhood was other selkies like him, and the occasional friendly dolphin. Nothing more, nothing less. “You ain’t too smart, are you?”

“I ain’t the bloke who got his skin stolen.” 

They both regarded one another before Mako turned away. “Go back to the sea, Jamie. Ain’t nothing for you here.”

Jamison’s finned ears began to lower as he watched the shirtless, stranded selkie return towards the town of people and vanished into the shadows from whence he came. He puffed his cheeks out angrily, before slapping his hand down against the wooden pier. Weren’t fair, that’s what it was. Big bloke like him stranded like this cuz someone stole his skin from him. He slowly sunk down into the ocean, falling beneath the waves as the cold water embraced him, and he let his eyes slowly shut as the darkness closed in around him.

~*~

“--so I think that’s how that should be done.” she said as she sipped at her tea. “Am I right?” in front of her an empty plate covered with crumbs and leftover egg sat. A glass that once held orange juice was now empty but the scent of all these food things remained in the air. “Hm, make sure you wash the pan good. It stunk of grease last time.”

“Okay.” Mako said as he approached the table, and her, to collect the goods from the table and returned to the sink so he could wash the dishes in the sink, eyes certainly not set outside, at the distant shore he could see from this window. The bars over the window was a nice touch. ‘To keep thieves’ out she had said, but honestly he had his doubts. There’d been no crime in this sleepy port town in decades and would probably continue to be idealistic.

“Good. Now, you’ve made your lunch? All ready for work?” 

“Yeah.” he grabbed his lunch box, where he always set it down after making it.

“Have a good day at work.”

He grunted an agreement, braced himself through the usual morning pleasantries and fare welled the woman and made his way to the front door. She’d made her way back upstairs as his hand wrapped itself around the door handle, and he turned it to pull the door open and stopped himself short when he saw they had a visitor. But not exactly any visitor.

A familiar face, maybe, but the rest of him not so much.

A tall man, maybe six foot something. Pale skin, patchy hair that looked like it was missing a few bald patches from... something or another. Shirtless, wearing nothing but torn dirty looking pants that were cut off at the knee. His right arm was missing from the forearm down, his stump scarred to all hell and his lower right leg was missing in action too. He was balancing himself on a cane with his one good arm, and his expression shifted from wariness to all out delight.

“Oh good, this is your place!” Jamie said brightly. “I was wonderin’ which one of these places was yours cuz your smells all over the place mate. You ain’t makin’ it easy for no one to-”

Mako wasn’t really listening, not anymore. Not when he saw the mermaid that he’d saved the night before standing there in front of his house, swaying unsteady on one leg, blabbering as loudly as he had last night. What was he doing here? How was he here? He was being an idiotic fool that’s what he was doing. Frowning, Mako slammed the door behind him having exited the house and grabbed the one arm of the one legged merman, and dragged him away from the house.

This was most certainly NOT something he wanted hanging around his street. 

Oh, what had he ever gotten himself into?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako now finds himself in the company of a mermaid turned human. And a pretty stupid one too. Now he has to make sure this idiot doesn't blow his cover...

“Oi careful!!” Jamie almost fell entirely, having to catch himself against Mako, and using his one good hand to steady himself on the crutch. “Want me to trip on over me ass now do you? Ain’t had one before now, but you want me fallin’ over it!”

Mako was silent as the ocean after a storm as he stormed down the street, still partially dragging the man who was all but bouncing along behind him. He was still beyond himself with a range of emotions, ranging from shock, to anger, and just a fraction of gratitude. That this stupid little idiot had done this, for him, all because of him fishing him out of that net.

Only once they were closer towards the pier, and more places to duck behind buildings to hide, did he stop. And do just that. Jamie found himself yanked down a fairly narrow side way, amazed that Mako could even squeeze himself down it. Suddenly he was pushed up against the wall, back slamming against the bricks.

“What are you doing here?” Mako demanded through gritted teeth.

“Being pinned up against a wall?” Jamie asked.

“What--no.” he pulled back a bit, eyebrows frowning over his scarred face. “What are you doing here on land? How the Hell did you even get like this?”

Jamie offered a smile. “Told you mate, I owe you. We merfolk pay our debts ‘n you need my help getting that skin of yours back. So I changed myself up into this here form so I can help but...” his smile dropped as he looked down at the right side of his body that was sadly missing his whole arm, as well as what was meant to be a full leg. The scarring he’d gotten through his long, harsh life at sea had remained on his human body. The missing arm did not grow back, nor the damage to the right side of his fin and it had resulted in missing one leg entirely.

“...but what?” Mako asked, “Why didn’t you go back to the sea?” something he himself could never do without dying, drowning in the same waves he’d learned to swim in.

“Cuz I owe you!” Jamie retorted, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I gotta help you. You don’t belong here,” he looks around the filthy, dirty alley way that the two had found themselves in. “Not on land. This ain’t for either of us and you look sad. So... so sad.”

“I’m not sad.” the selkie snapped. He was lying. Even he knew he was. Of course he was sad. He was utterly miserable and heartbroken every time he went to work to see the ocean lapping against the shores and the piers, how it kept the ships afloat. It was his home and he could never return.

“Sure mate.” the merman reached his one good hand out, patting Mako on his large shoulder. “But I’m still here. And I ain’t leavin’ till you get home again.”

“...not leaving.” Mako repeated in a grave tone of voice.

Jamie beamed and if he still had his fins jutting out of the side of his head they would no doubt be wiggling in pride. He’d done this, all for him, and he wouldn’t have turned into one of these filthy land dwelling creatures for just anyone. This wasn’t exactly easy...

After resisting the urge to facepalm so hard to leave a bruise on his forehead, Mako huffed. “Fine.” he turned away and began to squeeze his way back out onto the main street. 

“So where you goin’?” Jamie asked, as he grabbed his crutch and began to bounce behind the large man.

“Work.”

“What’s work?” the mermaid asked, fighting to keep up along the cobblestone pavement.

“It’s where you go to waste your days doing things you don’t want to do for little pieces of paper that you can exchange for things like food and clothes.” Mako explained as simply as he could.

“Food? You pay for food?” now he just sounded incredulous. “But... but the ocean’s right there, lotsa fish. Free fish! Why pay for food?”

“Humans are weird.” he replied simply. “Just accept that. Humans are just... weird. I mean...” Mako came to a stop for a moment. “They pay for things with money, or shiny metal coins right? You use them, you get stuff that you need. Or stuff that you didn’t know that you needed, like doilies.” his expression which was at the moment fairly calm slowly turned to one of gradually increasing rage. “What’s the point of them? They got no real purpose in life but I swear to the ocean itself that human beings adore them. The women,” he looks to Jamie, wagging a finger now towards the sky. “The women in particular love these things. You’d think a table cloth would be enough but oh, oh no. They have to get doilies to go on absolutely everything, even on top of table cloths! In the bathroom, in the halls, and the amount of effort that goes into them! Into making them! It’s maddening watching them make these tiny little things that have absolutely NO purpose whatsoever!”

Jamie stood there, in the post rant air, blinking slowly before he tilted his head. “What’s... what’s a doily?”

“Don’t fuckin’ ask.” Mako warned angrily before he continued to make his way down towards the pier. Jamie had no choice but to keep up with him. Soon enough the two reached the pier where Mako worked and it was very different to how it looked last night. What was once an empty pier was now full of people, mostly men, doing business. Many of them were talking, some singing a sea shanty or two, and one of them was most likely drunk already as there was no such thing as ‘too early’. 

While half the ships were preparing to ship out, the rest had just shipped in. There was crabs, fish, even a few unlucky octopus who had gotten snagged up in a net and dragged on board.

“Can’t believe it, bunch of vandals,” one man was muttering to his assistant as he held up tattered remains of a certain net. “Bloody good net, torn up by teenagers lookin’ for a laugh.”

Mako purposely walked a bit quicker, and Jamie hobbled to keep up, thankfully not spotting the net otherwise he would have been pointed out that it was the very net he’d been caught up in.

“Who’s this, Mako??”

Turning his head Mako came face to face with the equally tall, equally powerful looking man whose face was covered in white briskly hair. A scarred eye is white as the moon, the scarring over said eye looking like a pointed cross. He stood with an air of confidence that seemed to infect everyone around him, and a smile that was stretched wide across his face as he looked utterly delighted by the fact Mako had brought someone to work.

“Uh.” Mako stepped back a bit before reaching out and grabbed Jamie by the shoulder as he had suddenly moved up closer towards the towering man of muscle and was reaching to grab at his face. “Reinhardt this is. Jamie.”

“Ah, Jamie!” Reinhardt, already seemingly over Jamie reaching for his face, grinned widely. “Pleasure to meet you! I am Wilhelm Reinhardt! Everyone calls me Reinhardt!”

“Okay!” Jamie replied brightly, eyes still on those briskly whiskers.

“Mako!” he moved over towards the large man, lifting a hand and set it down onto Mako’s shoulder, giving it a small shake. “I did not know you had a friend coming to visit!”

“It was short notice.” Mako said honestly. “So he’s with me today.”

“Wonderful!” Reinhardt smiled, seemed as though the man had no other emotion on his face to display other than happiness or joy. “All hands on deck, eh?”

Jamie had no idea what that meant. “I only got one hand, would that work?” he asked.

This got a hearty laugh out of Reinhardt. "Ah, a man of humor! Good! A wonderful trait to have after having been handed such a fate. I admire that!" the large German man clapped Jamie on the back, the force of it almost causing him to buckle under the sheer strength of it all. "Welcome my friend to our pier! We keep things ship shape here, do we not Mako?"

Mako offered a faint grunt.

"Me and my crew are about to ship out for the day! Mako, will you be helping us set up the old girl?" he asked, looking to Mako so he missed the absolute horror stricken expression as he too looked to Mako.

"As usual." came the reply.

"Good man, good man! Now, if you'll excuse me!" with that the man spun and left, making his way towards a ship that was no doubt his judging by how very big it was.

"You ain't goin' out on the sea are you?" Jamie asked, eyes wide.

"What? No." Mako frowned as he moved away, making his way along the pier, Jamie hobbling along behind him as he did. "I got no death wish."

While it was true Mako had been born to the sea, his first steps as a human not coming until he was well into his twenties, if he were to return to it as he was now without his skin he would die. No chance of bobbing in the water, no thrashing of arms and legs would save him. He'd be embraced and welcomed home like a rock dropped into the water.

“So. What am I gonna do with you?” he turned his attention away from the sea which he, shockingly, had been gazing at for a few moments to turn his attention to the blond, scrawny looking man.

“I dunno.”

Well he was a big fat help, wasn’t he? A literal fish out of water. “Fine. Go and sit, you won’t be much help to anyone with one leg and one arm. And stay out of trouble.”

“I’ll be on me best behaviour!”

And so he sat, swinging his legs a little as he settled on an empty barrel. It was so strange watching humans like this, not from the safety of the ocean like he had time and time again. Sitting here among them, hearing their language, watching their body language, smelling their scents... it made him hungry. Incredibly hungry. His stomach growled loudly, giving voice to his hunger and Jamie clutched at his flat stomach in an attempt to silence it.

He watched as an old, one eyed woman across the way from the pier was setting up fish for sale in her stall. Ice beneath them, keeping them cool for some strange reason as she fussed around the food. If the fish were live, wriggling, and gasping for water Jamie may not be able to contain himself from leaping upon them to eat. 

The tall man whose face he wanted to touch approached her and they began talking, but were too far away for him to listen. But he still watched them, how the humans talked. They weren’t touching at all, keeping a safe distance as if they expected the other to attack. But then they were laughing and things were fine.

Humans really were strange.

Setting up the ship to head out was easy, Mako kept his head down throughout as he made sure the bait was where it had to be, the nets weren’t torn or ripped, that sort of thing. But he loathed working on deck for such a short time since that put him in direct contact with--

“Heyyyy it’s the fat man!”

Mako groaned to himself as he looped the rope in his hand around his arm, bundling it into an easy to grip set up. 

“Ignoring me again huh it’s okay, I know it’s hard for your brain to work cuz of all the fat in there.” the obnoxious, loud young man said as he leaned against a barrel. “Did you see that piece of work out there up on the docs? Missin’ ‘n arm AND a leg! Guess he’s alright though, but, well. Not really since those are the parts he left, right?” he burst into laughter at his own joke and Mako continued to do his best impression of a brick wall who’d lost its hearing aid.

“Ahh ya just don’t get good comedy. Too much fat in your ears to hear em huh?” he asked, snorting to himself before he moved along, grabbing a mop. “Better hop off now though old man, before ya sink us ‘n we have to charge you for the whole ship!”

Oh how he hated this obnoxious man. He’d heard his name once, but he didn’t care to remember it. He was only here because Reinhardt was one of those human beings who treated everyone, even stupidly cruel people, with pleasantries. He never really understood why, it was a weakness that would have been fully taken advantage of back in the sea but on land there was less a chance of being eaten for being weak. 

He finally got off the ship back onto the solid pier, thankful for it. Whenever he was on a boat he had an unsteady sinking feeling even if he wasn’t in the water at all. Jamie was there waiting, and he seemed to instantly perk up the second he appeared. “Ya done your work thing?” he asked.

“That stuff yeah.” Mako admitted. “Now I’m gonna gut some of the fresh fish for selling.”

“Can I help?” 

“You can’t use your teeth.”

“Oh well what’s the point?”

Mako almost laughed but he fought the urge to do so. As he watched Jamie pull himself to his foot and grab his underarm walking stick, wedging it under his right arm pit though he could only hug it tightly with his stump of a right arm to keep himself from toppling over entirely.

“Mako, hello.”

Another new face for Jamie, but this one was a little familiar. She was the one eyed woman he saw by the stalls of fish on ice. Her hair was silver and partly hid her missing eye, but did nothing to hide the kind smile that almost made Jamie feel like lowering his guard. “Who is this?” she asks, looking to Jamie.

“Jamie.” Mako answered. “Ana, this is Jamie. Jamie, this is Ana. She runs one of the fish stalls.”

“G’day!” he smiled toothily at the old lady. 

“Are you new here?” she asked, smiling at him with an observing eye. She couldn’t hide the fact she was looking at his missing limbs.

“Yup, just arrived this mornin’ actually! Well, last night really but-”

“He came on the train.” Mako covers quickly, since he half expected the stupid mermaid to tell them out right that he’d been fished out of the sea last night and spill the truth of his real identity his first day here. 

“I couldn’t help but notice he’s missing a few essentials.” Ana said, “And I was wondering if you’d like a leg?”

“You got a leg just lyin’ round?” Jamie asked.

“Well, a peg leg.”

Not an hour later, Jamie was hobbling around the pier on two legs. One was stiff, wooden, and was strapped into place around his stump. It wasn’t easy, it was a whole new balancing act he had to get a hang of but it was better than hopping along on just one leg and the use of his under arm crutch. 

Mako watched him in silence as he worked. A large knife would slice through a fish to spill its guts and he nicked his fingers on more than a few occasions but nothing worth worry. He only tore his gaze away to cast an angry glare to the obnoxious young man from before. His laugh was loud and rang in his ears, and he wished harder still he had his skin so he could grab him and drag him down into the depths.

“Look like you’re all set up now huh stumpy?” he asked.

“Stumpy?” Jamie asked as he’d approached Mako at last.

“Yeah, you! Missin’ ‘n arm and a leg? How’d you do that? On unlucky dip in a shark tank?” he asked, before laughing at his own joke though it made no sense.

Jamie was about to reply that he was technically just missing an arm, as his bad leg was probably due to the scarring on the right side of his fish body from a shark altercation he’d had when he was younger. But he had second thoughts for the first time that day, and just awkwardly laughed. He watched him, how he suddenly slapped his hand down hard on Mako’s shoulder, saying something that went over his head far too easily and he saw the unease on his savior's face. 

Plus he smelled bad. Not of fish, because fish is a very good smell to sniff out but the smell coming off of this man was... bad. But he still watched him quietly, his face, his build, and when the man caught him staring he didn’t break eye contact. He held it, raising his shaggy eyebrows.

“What you lookin’ at?” the man asked, frowning now. “You got something to say to me? Huh? Yeah?”

Jamie, mouthy, talkative Jamie, said absolutely nothing.

“Drop it.” Mako warned, his tone dropping into an angry, warning tone that had both of them look at him with matching expressions of surprise. Intimidating and huge as Mako was, on land, he wasn’t the kind of man to be turned to anger too easily. After all, he was living with a woman who spoke down to him every day and he never raised his voice to her, much less his hand.

Regardless, when the time came to stop work for the day he was grateful for it. He had seen Reinhardt off on his ship, had made ‘small’ talk with Ana which basically meant listening to her worrying at him, asking about his lady friend, and how he knew Jamie. He gave short answers to everything as he normally did, but she knew well enough to accept his short answers as they were better than nothing.

“So where are you going?” Mako asked Jamie as they were making their way back inland.

“I’m gonna go sleep!” Jamie replied briskly, “‘n brainstorm up how I’m gonna find your skin!” 

“Hah.” he scoffed a little, shaking his head. “Good luck. You’re gonna need it.” if he couldn’t find it after years of looking for it, he didn’t know how a half brained mermaid could. But he humored him. His company wasn’t exactly terrible, it was nice talking to someone who had come from the same place he had. Before he turned away he paused, and looked back to Jamie. “Also... don’t go grabbing people’s faces. I saw you about to touch Reinhardt’s face earlier. You don’t do that.”

“But why? I ain’t seen a face like that, I wanna know what it feels like!”

“I know. I wanted to touch it too first time I met him but humans got a bubble ‘round them.” Mako explained as best he could. 

“A bubble? I don’t see no bubble... is it magic?”

“Sure.” he replied, turning away. “Human magic bubbles only they can see ‘n if you pop em and get too close they get mad. Not worth the hassle.”

Jamie watched him walk away and while he so badly wanted to follow him to see more of his house, he knew better. That was Mako’s territory and he wasn’t privy to it just yet. He stood there a moment longer before his stomach grumbled loudly once more, and hunger pains stabbed their way through his very being. Clutching at his stomach with his one good hand, he whined, before turning his head back towards the pier.

The sun was just beginning to dip, the skies turning from blue to dark blue, stars piercing the sky to offer up some light as the clouds gave way to the moon which would be shining bright and new tonight. Doing an about face turn Jamie used his crutch, and new leg, to make his way back down towards the pier. But he veered off before getting too close to where men were moving towards bars to drink, and socialized even more after a long day of work.

Instead he made his way down to the beach, where the sand almost made him trip due to his new leg sinking in it. Without even pausing to check his surroundings Jamie threw himself onto the sand, and pulled the boot off of his one good foot and turned it upside down and blood spilled out from within, down to the sand beneath him. Most of it was dried and clogging the inside of the boot already and the smell was awful, so he plunged it into the waves that were gently lapping at the sand.

The base of his foot was constantly bleeding, though it showed no signs of any cut flesh. 

Soon the shoe was dumped into the water entirely and it was joined by the torn, old pants he wore. As well as his crutch, and peg leg. Seconds later the thing that hit the water was not a young man but a very long mermaid, vanishing back into the waves, giving his body respite and the ability to recuperate a little. He sighed out bubbles as the cold ocean enveloped him and he swam through the shallows slowly, glad for the rest on his bleeding foot. Hopefully that old shoe would be all clean by morning. Explaining a blood stained shoe would be difficult.

Hunger once more grabbed at him and he pined quietly to himself. There wasn’t any fish anywhere even if the place reeked of it. The scent of fish is what had brought him to these shores, recovering from losing his arm so recently. Maybe he could...

~*~

“Now get outta here before ya make a bigger ass of yourself!” the bar keep literally threw the young man from the pub, slamming the door behind him as he stumbled and tripped into some trash cans and barrels.

“Aww FFFUUCK youu!” he slurred, throwing his empty bottle of beer at the wall, missed, and hit another wall causing the glass to shatter. To doubly make sure they knew just how angry he was, he purposely pissed up against the wall before staggering away from the pub, wondering if there were any other pubs that would be open this late. 

Granted, there were no other pubs in town. Just the one.

However his train of thought, derailed as it was, could never reach that station of realization as he heard something piercing through the foggy darkness. Lifting his head, just as a dark cloud slowly drifted in front of the full moon, he watched as the town plunged into darkness even more so than before. Through this hazy darkness, he heard a voice. 

That voice was singing, and to his drunken, addled brain, it was quite possibly the most beautiful music he’d ever heard. His life was already free of many worries or concerns, but he could feel them literally floating away from him. The music drew him from the town, led him down to the pier, where the cold night air nipped at his face yet he could almost not feel the cold whatsoever.

There was the ocean, as it always had been every day of his life. The waves were inviting as they lapped against the docked boats, the pier, and the sand. It seemed to glow tonight, even if there was no light reflecting off of it due to the clouds blotting out the moon and stars. It was inviting and wondrous as that singing that continued to fill his ears.

It’s now that his feet hit the water, and even with the waves washing up to meet and push him back he continues forward. There’s an out stretch of rocks, creating a small naturally made bridge that some children would play on, diving into the water for fun. Normally at this time of night it was deserted, and yet there is a figure sitting on it. Fog conceal their true features as the being, missing a right arm, seems to be the source of the voice.

The figure sings louder, luring him closer, almost like a bobber on the end of a fishing line luring a fish closer and closer.

The creature that was sitting on the rocks with skin a pale blue, hair a messy patchy blond with red accents on its fins and scars, kept singing putting more and more of himself into each and every note that fell from his mouth that was now salivating at the sight of the man. The same man from earlier today. The one that had earned Mako’s ire. The same one that had insulted him flat out to his face.

His smell was undeniably recognizable even with the ocean washing over him.

Jamies song came to an abrupt halt and he suddenly leaned forward, the spell of his song still ringing in the nameless mans ears as he smiled at him the most predatory smile imaginable. His lips curled upwards, his jaw lowered and in doing so exposed rows of very sharp, dangerous teeth. The prey he’d lured was unresponsive even to that show of might before the mermaid was upon him, arms wrapping around his shoulders as he was pulled down into the murky depths of the ocean.

That’s when the screaming began but those screams were already muffled by the ocean, its cold embrace finally making its presence known as blood began to turn the water red when Jamies teeth finally sunk into the struggling mans neck, and tore it open. He’d almost forgotten what human flesh tasted like, as both he and the body sunk into the darkness of the sea together, the length of his body wrapping around the limbs to hold him tight and to ensure nobody else could swiftly steal the kill from a one armed mermaid.

He had a hunger to feed, and this was the only means of doing so after all.

Jamie just hoped that nobody would miss this person.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another day of humanity brings Jamie to Mako's house where he begins to sniff just where the selkie's skin could be. This is one determined fishman... who also begins to learn a bit more about the new body he's inhabiting.

It only took a day for the news to start going around that Timothy ‘Timmy’ Maines had gone missing. People had seen him at the bar the night before doing his usual job of drinking himself stupid and starting a bar fight before being thrown out by Don the bar tender. Nobody saw him make it home, and there was no signs of him anywhere in town.

Mako was oblivious to this at first. He had no reason to worry why a filthy little shit like that would vanish; after all it gave him one less difficult human being to deal with. Made his life less of a headache, to be sure.

“You’re lookin’... well.” he had to comment when Jamie finally made his presence known just a little after his arrival at work. The mermaid indeed was looking a little fuller around the face. Not so sickly skinny as he’d looked the previous day. “Got a good meal in you?”

“Oh yeah!” Jamie replied brightly, his face indeed looking rosier. But that’s what happens when a mermaid ate. Meals, especially when you were a loner like himself, were far and few between. You’d hunt alone, instead of in a pod like he had done as a youngster. Back then, he had his mother and the other pod members to help fish. They’d hunt as a group, using their numbers to get themselves a good meal.

That was, most times, fish but of course they couldn’t resist the taste of human flesh. Now that was the stuff of the Gods, the taste of meat from the land dwelling two leggers. His first taste of meat had been the flesh of a human, after all. It had been procured by his mother, bringing freshly caught food to her brood of one thousand hatchlings each one hungry and starving.

Since then, it was the best meal a mermaid could have and once he’d learned how to sing to properly lure people to him, but to sing you needed energy. That kind of magic came from deep within, and would burn your energy if you weren’t fully fed. He’d put a lot at stake for his hunt last night, and if it hadn’t turned out Jamie may well might have died of starvation that night.

But his risk had paid off; he was full, he had energy, giving him the ability to continue to numb himself through the pain that every walking step gave him. Thankfully the ocean water had washed away the dried blood from the inside of his boot so by the time he tugged it on that morning, and the pain began afresh, he could soldier through it.

“You hangin’ round again?” Mako asked, eyeing the young man. 

“Nah, I wanna check out your town! See what all these humans do, y’know. I never been to land before. This is excitin, but I doubt I’m gonna be coming on land again. Ain’t got no other reason to.” Jamie replied with a cheeky grin.

Mako stared at him for a moment, before pulling back slowly. “...I’m the reason you’re here.”

“Told ya,” Jamie said as he turned around, hobbling on his crotch and new peg leg as he began to walk away. “I ain’t leavin’ till you’re in the sea again.”

The large man watched the other hobble away, loathing him for a moment. He smelt of the sea. The salt clung to his body, he could see sand granules clutching his clothing and he’d never felt so much jealousy towards another creature more in his entire life. How he longed to swim as well. To dive into the depths, to sniff out the coral, hunt some fish with his teeth as he used to.

Gutting fish with knives... scaling them... it was all so clean. So human.

He was not human. Far from it. Selkies weren’t meant to be away from the sea for long, and he was sure he could very well die from mourning. Having to gaze at that statue of the female selkie however, it helped if just a little.

She was set up just a little ways from the busy docks and piers. Built on the rocks that overlooked the ocean was the woman, as if she was just stepping out of the ocean. Her body bared to the world, naked as the day she was born, shedding her skin as she steps. It’s a beautiful sight, a reminder of his kind that was helping to keep him grounded if a little.

But she was too skinny though. Far too pretty around the face. Far too human. A real selkie woman was thick; she was solid, fat with blubber to keep her warm in the cold ocean waters. Long gorgeous locks would flow over her shoulders like a gushing waterfall; round, warm, welcoming faces. Like his mother, his aunts, his sisters. All, in his opinion, the most beautiful human faces on the planet.

He missed them almost as badly as he missed the sea.

This woman he spent his nights with, whom he provided for... she was ugly. Inside, and out. But here he was, stuck to her like a fish caught in a net that was dragging it up to the surface for it to suffocate and die.

And, even if he felt envious of this mermaid who’d stumbled into his life, he really did hope he could help him in some way, shape, or form.

~*~

The shattering of glass filled the air and Jamie flinched as he pulled the crutch back and forth along the shattered window pane, clearing the glass away. Reaching in, and around, he pulled the handle down and pushed the door open. This was the house that had smelt of Mako, and the house he’d found him in that morning. 

He dumped his crutch outside, well hidden under some bushes that were overgrown with leaves and flowers, as he felt it would only hinder him now. Jamie made his way inside, passing down a slender hall he wondered just how Mako fit through considering his wide girth. Coming to a short pause he had to stare at an image on the wall, encased in some wood.

It was Mako and a woman. Now, Jamie was smart enough to know what pictures were and that they were just still images and not captured souls but he still felt entranced to gaze at the selkie in the photograph. His expression was sullen, eyes seemingly gazing towards a horizon he could not see. Those strong scars marked his face, making it the kind of face one could never forget once you’ve seen it.

“Blood Hell you’re gorgeous.” he swooned to the image on the wall, leaning forward, pressing his hand against said wall and if he had his other hand he’d have pressed it to his face in a bashful means. “What’s that? Swim away with ya into the wide blue yonder?” he asked, looking away, fluttering his lashes. “Oh, it’s all so fast! You only just saved me the night before last!”

Jamie erupted into laughter. “Yes, course I will!”

Without a hint of shame Jamie continued into the house, observing the surrounding scenery. There were many images up on the wall, most of them being the woman with an older man. He didn’t stop to look at her face at all; she wasn’t any concern to him. 

“So.” he said as he stood in a room with couches and chairs, and a tiny table in the middle. “Where would ya keep a selkie skin?” Jamie asked himself. “Well, I’d put it in somewhere nobody goes.” the mermaid looked around the room before spotting a door, and hobbling over to it he threw it open and found a smaller room. Very small. Lots of coats hanging up on bits of wood and wire and for a split second he thought he’d found the skin.

But no, they had lining that wasn’t warm like skin. All fake. “Bleh, stupid fake selkie skins.” he muttered after having picked every single one off of the hangers before tossing them behind him in dismissal. So if they weren’t here, maybe they’d be in another room.

Just how quickly he went was up for debate. He went from room to room, turning things over, opening things he most likely shouldn’t, and even tugged more fake skins out of more smaller rooms and even off big beds. This was getting so frustrating. And exhausting; all the energy he’d gotten out of his meal last night was already draining faster than he thought it would.

“Wot’s this,” he said as he’d entered one of the last rooms to find it mostly barren save for a single cage looking thing sitting in the middle of the room. It reminded him of the things crabs and crawfish would get caught in, but it was open at the top. It wouldn’t be very good at catching things... and the clothing he found in the white draws was so small! “Who can wear these?” Jamie asked himself, “It’s so small Mako can’t fit into this!”

Frustrated he returned to the outside of the room, back into the hall, glowering to himself. This wasn’t turning up any seal skins anywhere. But that’s when his eyes caught sight of something.

“Allo...” he stopped as he saw, on the top floor ceiling, a door. It had a tiny chain hanging down, just begging to be pulled. So he did just that, but the second he did it swung open and wooden beams came shooting out. They almost struck him right in the face but thankfully he leaped away at the last second as the wood fell into place. “What the Hell you tryin’ ta kill me??” he shouted at the ladder steps

But still, now above him hung a black, inviting looking door. Climbing the way up there was difficult as his foot was unsteady, and his pegleg wasn’t exactly made for stair climbing. But after slipping down a few times he finally dragged himself up fully into the darkened room and no sooner had he stepped forward the spring loaded ladder sprung back into place and the door slammed shut plunging him into darkness.

This would worry a normal person but for Jamie, his eyes more or less instantly adjusted to the darkness. He was able to see in the darkest depths of the ocean while hunting and just having fun; the darkness of a room did not scare him. Maybe in time he’d realize he had no way to get out of here but he was happy to have found a new room to explore.

And there was so much in here! Boxes of things to be ripped open and tipped out, torn to shreds by sharp teeth and one grasping hand as one hand was missing. Contents spilled, some metal things that he recognized as stuff he’d see at the bottom of the sea especially where ships had sunk. More clothing, trinkets, paintings and images stored away...

Pausing Jamie finally takes a good look at one of the stored away images. It was the woman with the old man again; a big briskly beard, short, stout, smiling proudly with his arm around the girl. Were they related? Was that her father? Jamie didn’t know that joy, knowing who his father was. Most mermaids were like that though... you knew your mother, who kept you safe as she could until you were old enough to manage. Either you stayed, or you left. 

Jamie had left.

He stared at the man’s face, studying it in the darkness, slowly realizing it was a face he had seen in town before he heard a noise downstairs. Screaming. Hysterical screaming of a woman’s voice. Jamie may be naive to land dwelling ways but he knew screaming when he heard them; this was terrified screaming. She’d come home and found the mess, not something he’d planned on being around for. 

Fight or flight instincts kicked in as he heard her movements in the house below and Jamie stops moving entirely; to get out of here he’d have to be very quiet. And very quick. Which was a bad combination when you were hobbling around on only one flesh leg, and the other a peg which barely bent. But he’d gotten out of worse situations, right? If he could survive a shark tearing his arm off, he could survive a screaming woman.

Spotting a window, Jamie scrambled his way over. Below, the screaming had at least come to a stop but now there was rapid talking happening. Was she with someone? Was he already outnumbered? All the more reason to rush.

He tugged and pulled the window open, cursing its screeching frame as the wood rubbed against each other harshly. Looking out, and down, he sees just how far he had to drop. The ground was a bit away, but there was some bushes to soften his fall. With no other way out, Jamie does the most logical thing a mermaid on land could do and that’s throw yourself out of the upper most window of the attic into a flower bed below.

His landing is anything but graceful but even with a partly busted peg leg, Jamie staggers to his foot, wincing in agony as he does before quietly slinking his way around the house. He reaches the front, the door to the home still wide open and he grabs at his poor crutch which had remained unseen in the bushes. Then he hurries as fast as his bleeding and battered body could take him away from the house, chest wheezing as even more of his energy continued to drain.

All that work undone by the woman coming home early. And no sign of the skin.

~*~

Mako stood in the doorway to the house he was, technically, trapped in and stared at the carnage. Almost everything that wasn’t tied down was tossed around as if it meant nothing. Images remained on walls, true, but everything else was thrown aside. Chairs turned over, the couch turned on its head, and every closet was open and its contents strewn around.

“It’s terrible just look at what they did!”

“Please try to remain calm ma’am, I know this looks bad but we need to make sure nothing of value was stolen.”

“But look at my home!!”

He was deaf to the police trying to calm her raging fury, instead choosing to walk forwards through the mess that was his jail cell. He had never seen such a mess like this on land before. It was almost impressive. Mako looked in the kitchen to see that even that hadn’t been spared, the grill from within the stove pulled out, the fridge doors left open and melted goods now dribbled down to make the floor slippery and slick.

Shockingly, he didn’t have to wonder who did this. Jamie had said he’d be on his best behaviour hadn’t he? That he’d stay out of trouble? So the same day he hadn’t been at the docks, watching him work and make his yapping small talk, he’d broken into this place and torn it to pieces. 

To find his skin. He’d sworn to him that he wouldn’t stop until he was free again and it was clear the merman was the type to get right onto his quest with nothing holding him back. Probably because he didn’t know doing this kind of stuff was illegal. Did he even have any concept of human laws? He’d have to ask next time he sees him.

“Sir?” the human in blue touched his arm, and Mako turned his head to look at him. “We have a few questions regarding this terrible crime. If you could come sit with us?”

Mako could only grunt. He didn’t want to sit and talk; he just wanted to go and find Jamie and smack him upside the head for causing so much trouble but also then hug him in thanks for doing what he’d done. This either proved his skin really had been in his house somewhere, or somewhere else. Either way, it would help in the search for it in some way or another even if he would have to put up with an emotionally hysterical woman for the next few days or however long she’s going to panic about this for.

What a drag.

~*~

Jamie was laughing as he ran along the sandy beach, hindered by the sand and his peg leg, as well as the constant burning pain in his one foot but still he laughed. Scurrying along down along the beach towards a small cave opening where a smaller, more private beach was set. This time of evening nobody was out here, so it was perfect for a merman to take refuge in away from possible prying eyes.

He laughed still as he abandoned his crutch and tumbled into the salty water, rolling over a few times before coming to a stop on his back, heart racing fit to burst from his chest as his head spun with the adrenaline. Last time he’d felt this kind of rush was when he’d survived being eaten alive by a huge shark.

Giving a few more giggles Jamie lay there a moment longer before he sat up, and was mid way through reaching to tug off his boot when he stopped. There was something going on with his crotch that he hadn’t noticed before now, but only now did it draw all of his attention. Something was most certainly poking up from beneath his pants, and judging by how it felt, it was a part of himself.

Which only reminded him of the first night he’d transformed. He had watched as his body had shifted, and it had hurt terribly. It was agony, he’d screamed in pain beneath the waves as he’d been changed he hadn’t noticed all the parts of him that had shifted. There’d been a new addition to his anatomy beyond two legs; the third one between the two new (almost full) legs but he’d paid it no attention as he’d found some discarded pants to yank on. Those same pants, as well as his blood stained shoe, were discarded as he investigated.

As it turned out, that’s what was causing the the problem. There it was, standing to attention. Veins running along it seemed to throb, and the cool night air only made the member throb all the more than before when hidden within his pants. Jamie observed it in silence before reaching his hand out, touching the swollen head of it with just the tip of his finger but that was enough to elicit a verbal response as he shivered.

“O-okay...” Jamie wrapped the palm of his hand around the head, before feeling it grow slippery beneath his grip. But it wasn’t water, that much he was aware of. This kind of pleasure though, it was new yet felt right at the same time. Never had he experienced it before, but the feeling was familiar and welcome regardless. His mind wandered as much as his hand did, which had reached further along the shaft to squeeze around the base .

His mind immediately jumped to the mental image of Mako. The towering, muscular, fat selkie who was stuck in a human body. He imagined his scarred face, those thick lips, his fat nose drawing closer to his own. So close he could feel the warmth of his breath against his face and he wantonly pressed himself closer towards the larger man. Well, in his imagination he did. What would he do if those two large, powerful hands gripped his slender body to drag him closer to him?

Not put up any kind of resistance whatsoever. He would welcome it, wishing he had two full arms as he’d wrap them up around the large selkie’s shoulders to drag him closer and bite a hungry needy kiss against those lips of his. In his mind he felt those roaming hands grip him, pushing him down against the floor and while he was unfamiliar with the sensation between his legs it only felt grander, and more wonderful if he thought of Mako touching him there.

If they were in the ocean they’d be circling one another, allowing the waves to carry them as they’d press close and hold onto one another. Anchoring each other, being the only things that mattered in the wide, vast depths of the sea.

“M-Mako...” Jamie whispered, his back beginning to arch slowly as the pleasure boiling between his legs grew in strength. The toes on his one foot curled and pressed in on themselves as he kicked it suddenly. “M-more...” he begged on a hungry breath as his hand continued to stroke up and down the length of his erection. “Please. P-please...”

He hadn’t even been aware that the tide had been rolling in. The smaller beach within the cave grew smaller as the waves grew higher around his ankles. But he hardly noticed as the pleasure growing within him got larger, harder, bigger. It was almost blinding him with the intensity, this unknown pleasure. 

In his imagination Mako was pressing against him. His seal tail being wrapped around desperately by Jamie’s long, curling tail. Those large hands were maybe a bit more like flippers but that was fine as they slapped against him, curling and gripping as whiskers protruding from his face scratched against Jamie’s face. His weight felt like nothing in this water. Only warmth, and protection... and love.

His new appendage throbbed within his grasp as an unfamiliar hand rubbed and squeezed, finding its bearings against a new piece of his anatomy to cling to. He felt his whole body burn hotter, and hotter still until he felt like he’d been punched in the gut. Jamie felt his seed spill out over his closed fist, staining his inner thighs before being washed away almost immediately by the oceans waves. 

He arched his back again, eyesight blurred as he began to slowly sink into the ocean. As he did, his body slowly transformed once again. He sunk, exhausted, as the waves wrapped around him in a familiar embrace. The root of his pleasure slowly shifted back to its original appearance, rather than matching that of the human anatomy. Yet the slow burning feeling of his release remained warm in his body, and he smiled softly beneath the waves.

“Gonna have to try that out again...” Jamie mumbled to himself as the high began to very slowly cool down within him. When the warmth vanished though, the feeling of exhaustion and hunger began to gnaw at him all over again. He moved his hand to his stomach and gripped against his gut, fins flaring out a little. Damnit. His hunger was only getting worse. Just like the Sea Witch had said it would.

_“Transformation takes a lot of energy. And power. You’ll most likely be hungry every other hour...” her long blond hair obscuring most of her face as she lay curled in her cave at the depths of the ocean. “Are you certain about this?”_

_Jamie drifted in the water outside the cave, his long curving body keeping him afloat as it always did. “I gotta! He saved me skin, kept me from bein’ snatched by them two leggers on land. And he’s stuck!”_

_“So you said.” she replied in a bemused tone of voice. “A selkie stuck on land... how cruel. But selkies ask for this fate. Going ashore like that, trying to woo a simple minded two legger to romance them. For nothing better than what, a fling or two? He deserves what’s happened.”_

_“No!” his tone of voice surprised her. Nobody had spoken so boldly to her in many a decade. “He’s stuck, and he saved me! If it wasn’t for him I’d be dead! I gotta help him, I gotta pay him back! So I’m gonna!”_

_She laughed, amused by just how bold this stupid one armed mermaid was acting. Shifting a bit, she rested her chin on her hand. “Very well. I’ll give you the power to transform into a person but know this... it will hurt. You will be in excruciating pain. With every step you take, your feet will bleed as if you’re stepping on sharks teeth. Because it isn’t where you belong. And if you do fail... and if your selkie isn’t his proper self by the time the next full moon washes over this ocean of ours...”_

His eyes shot open and he looked upwards immediately. Above him, the clouds were stretching out across the star filled night sky, and there was the moon sitting where it always sat. Nowhere near full. He still had time; surely. Jamie flinched as hunger stabbed at his stomach once more and he curled forward in the ocean, wrapping his arms around his middle as his long tail pushed against the waves. 

“Gotta eat... gotta...” 

Eyes opening below the waves, Jamie dives down into the depths. He needed to eat but even he knew trying to lure another human to eat so shortly after his last successful attempt was pushing it. He’d find fish by himself. He had no choice but to, otherwise he’d go hungry and suffer the consequences come morning.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jamie learns how Mako got his skin stollen and the two find comfort with one another. But has the mermaids arrival caused waves for the town at last?

Jamie hadn’t acknowledged the ruckus around town as he hobbled through it that morning. He really couldn’t, considering his main focus was one thing and one thing only; finding the man from those pictures. That beard of his, that facial hair that he himself could never grow, mocked him from those images. He was important, he could feel it in his gut and his gut had never been wrong before.

Well that’s not true. It had lured him to that net but then again thanks to getting tangled in that net he’d found Mako and anything that would end with such a discovery could never be considered bad. His heart went back to what had transpired last evening in the shallows and on the sand, prompting it to beat faster immediately.

All around him people were putting up banners, streamers, balloons and other such things that the mermaid had never seen before. It took a balloon exploding near his face for him to shriek and finally take notice of what was going on around him. He watched, transfixed, as a balloon was blown up and tied before his eyes before it was strung up a lamp post.

“There you are.”

Mako’s voice was the only thing that could draw his attention away from the balloon and he looked up at the man, smiling toothily before pointing to one.

“Jellyfish?” he asked.

“What?” he looked at the balloon, then back to the mermaid. “No, they’re balloons.”

“Brawl loons?”

“Balloons. Humans use them for celebrating but never mind that. Where were you yesterday?” Mako asked.

Now, a normal person would cover up. They’d launch into a well rehearsed lie. Even with the burning heat of guilt in their gut, fueled by their lies, they would string up a long story to fabricate just where they were. Jamie, however, did not have that thought process.

“I went through your house!” he replied, proudly, brightly.

Mako grabbed his arm and yanked him into the nearest alley, out of sight as much as possible as he slammed the mermaid against the wall. “What the Hell did you think you were doing??”

Wind knocked out of him it took Jamie a few seconds to gather his breath again. “Lookin’ for your skin!” he said, “Like I said!”

He glared at the stupid little mermaid before groaning, and slapped his hand over his forehead and dragged it down his face. Taking a deep breath to keep a hold of himself he shook his head. “The cops are looking for you now.”

“Cops?”

“Humans who wear blue. Figure they know all the rules about living and if you don’t stick to them, you get in trouble.” Mako explained. “You scared her something awful.”

“Her?” Jamie asked.

“...the woman I’m living with. Now she--”

“Mako!”

Turning around, Mako and Jamie both came face to face with the woman at last. She was fairly short, long black hair, expression seemingly set on a permanent scowl as she stood there holding a bag. “You’re not leaving me to carry this bag all by myself are you, in my condition, after yesterday?” she asked.

Jamie blinked a few times, watching as Mako stepped out of the alley to approach her, mumbling something as he did and took the bag of goods from her. At the removal of the bag, Jamie finally got a really good look at her. Short as she was, she was big. Very big.

“Wow you’re really fat, like Mako! Good and healthy!” Jamie announced happily; fatness in the ocean was a good thing after all. It got so cold out there sometimes, trying to stick to a hot current was very hard to pull off even for the most talented swimmer.

She stared at him in abject horror; as if he’d just... well, broken into her house and turned it upside down. “I am NOT fat!” she said, gobsmacked.

“You’re not?” he asked. “Then what are you?”

“I am pregnant! Honestly!” she scoffed, moving away. “Mako, I’m going home. Father is coming over as you know, to help install better locks and security. We can’t have this happen again; just think, it could have happened after the baby arrived oh my God I can’t begin to imagine--what would you even do, glower at the intruder? We should get a dog, a nice big mean one so at least I have SOMEone around when something like this should happen again!”

And she walked away, grumbling to herself and was soon gone as swiftly as she appeared. Jamie blinked a few times, before looking to Mako.

“What’s pregnant?”

“What?” Mako turned his head, looking at him. 

“What’s that?”

Mako blinked a few times before he groaned and rubbed his large hand over his face in frustration for the second time that morning. “Pregnant means she’s with kid. She’s going to have a baby soon. Like how whales do only not in the water.”

“Oh!” he’d never heard the term before so it had naturally confused him. “Is she your mate? How did she get your skin? Can I know? C’mon mate you know I’m good to listen I’m an awful good listener you should ask anyone they’ll tell ya, oh old Jamie, he’s the best listener this side of the Ocean he is! If there was a contest to see who would listen best I wanna bet it’ll be me!”

A large hand smothered his face. “You wanna talk? Let’s talk. Down the beach. The cave. You know it?”

Oh Jamie knew it, he knew it very intimately and while he wanted to say just that his mouth was still covered so he just nodded his head rapidly. He pulled away after a moment, before glancing around again. “So what’s goin’ on with all this here mate?”

“Celebration. They’re celebrating a statue. Another strange habit of humans.” Mako grunted as the two began to walk through the busy, decorated street as people milled around. He was unaware of Jamie scanning the sea of people, watching for that one face that he’d all but memorized even with his shoddy memory. “Ironically, it’s one of a selkie.”

“Really?”

He was led down along the rocks where the ocean crashed and sure enough there was the familiar statue. Mako gestured to it with his free hand as the other still gripped the bag. “This has been here fifty years ‘n the town folk figure it fair to celebrate her.”

“She’s ugly.” Jamie said pointedly, looking at her beautifully carved face, weathered slightly by the sea air. “Like that lady of yours.”

Mako said nothing, but silently agreed.

“...how’d she get you, Mako? How’d that thing grab you outta the ocean? Did she use a big net?” he asks, knowing well enough to drop his tone to a whisper as they stared at the statue. In the distance, a band began to practice some music. It was good, decent folk music, and it helped smother the two half human creatures words.

“She found out how to lure me.” Mako said, quietly. “I’d been hunting near by. This place is good for fish and, well. I got an appetite.” he didn’t see it, but Jamie cast a quick glance to his gut before looking back to his face. “Her husband is away at sea, most likely dead she claims... she cried those stupid seven tears for me and I came to her and while she had me those three days she stole my skin somehow. Blinded by no longer being lonely. I don’t know.” he rubs at one of his arms, frowning. “She’s hidden it well. Tried to find it. Can’t. Which is why you wasted your time turning the house upside down.”

Jamie frowned, before reaching his one good hand over to touch his arm. It was such a small, gentle touch but it stole the air from Mako’s lungs. He could almost feel the other’s emotions, his wants, his needs. It had been so long since he’d touched a fellow child of the ocean and he could almost cry from this simple contact alone. But he doesn’t, instead he pulls back, and begins to walk along the pier as the music gets louder. 

“Mako,” Jamie grips his crutch and follows after him as fast as he can. “I’m gonna help ya mate. I know I told ya before but I’m gonna, I’m gonna find where that skin is and get it to you or I’ll die tryin!”

There was something oddly grim about that. Mako turned his head to look at the young mermaid, out on land, hobbling along missing a foot and an arm yet despite this he’s trying. He really, clearly, truly is and for his sake. It’s almost flattering. Alright, maybe very flattering that this little idiot would be trying to do this. He saw that spark in Jamie’s eyes, his excitement in his moves despite how it was clear walking pained him. 

He turns away and continues to walk, the distant drone of the band mixing with that of the ocean waves continually crashing up against the rocks and sand. It was surreal actually being able to talk about what was happening, what had happened, with somebody besides himself. Mako couldn’t, and wouldn’t, open up to anyone in town about his situation. What would they do, how would they react, to learning a living breathing Selkie was in their midst?

“...do you miss it?” Jamie asked, once they were far enough from the town.

“Yes. Desperately.” Mako didn’t need to ask clarification just what Jamie was talking about. “I’m stuck in this town, forced to watch my home but I can’t return.”

Jamie made a soft whining sound of sympathy.

“I’m almost jealous that you can. Me, jealous of you. Now there’s a laugh, if I could.” the selkie scoffed, talking to a mermaid stuck out of water. “To be so close and so far. It’s driving me insane.”

Forcing his gaze away from the water Mako moves along the water's edge, sand sinking below his heavy feet as he walks and Jamie manages to walk behind him. Hobbling with one foot, a peg leg, and a crutch on the sand was not easy after all. On top of that the stabbing pain with each and every step his foot took wasn’t helping matters. But he was managing, just as he did in regards to everything he did, for Mako.

The large man set his bag down by the mouth of the cave, before pausing and sniffing the air. While he knew the familiar smell of the oceans salt, he caught whiff of something else. “Is that blood?” he asked.

Jamie paled a bit before staggering to the nearest rock and sat on it, thankful for the break. Walking on the sand had taken more energy out of him than he’d care to admit and the pain was becoming harder to ignore. “Fish gotta eat, mate.” he said with a weak smile. “And keepin’ this form ain’t exactly easy. I’m starvin’ end of every day.”

Mako says nothing, before moving deeper into the cave. It’s in there that he can remove his boots at last, and moved himself closer to the water. The lapping waves wash over his feet, up to his ankles, but already he looks as though he’s beginning to panic. Despite knowing all too well he is perfectly safe, his brain and body is beginning to feel the first frantic moments a normal person would when drowning.

He couldn’t even do this.

Tearing himself away from the water he collapses onto the sand, feet wet, and heart racing in his chest. Jamie joins him, dropping the crutch and collapses onto the sand besides him with a hum.

“Can’t even get my feet wet in the sea.” The ocean would only accept him as he was, in his skin. Without it, he would just drown and dying in his home was a horrifying thought. He lifted his hands and pressed them to his face. “I’m going insane. I don’t belong here. I don’t love her. I’m a prisoner and I can’t escape. What do I do. What do I freaking do.”

Jamie wasn’t sure if he should be hearing this. Mako, and these words, they felt private. Special. Did he even warrant being here, listening to them? Reaching his one good hand out again, he touches the large man’s arm. In the far distance, you could hear the folk music still being played, drifting on the ocean's breeze.

“I promise.” Jamie spoke, his light hearted words coming through far more serious than Mako had ever heard. “I promise you, Mako. I’m gonna find where she’s hidden it, and you’re gonna be swimming away from this Hell hole with me before the next full moon.”

That was oddly specific, but Mako didn’t, and couldn’t, question it. Pressing his hands close still against his head, he breathed hotly against his palms which escaped through the cracks between his two hands. It’s frustrating. He feels so many things and he has nowhere to go, no way of being who he truly is. Lowering his hands he turns his head to look at Jamie in silence, and the two half men, half monsters, stared at one another in the semi darkness of the cave with the distant music still filling the air.

Neither man could remember who closed distance first, whose lips found the others but soon enough arms were wrapping and hands gripping desperately at one another. Mako grunted aggressively against Jamie’s lips, pressing harshly, desperate for this more than he would have thought himself to be. And his hands, large as they were, could grip so much of the mermaid it was a silent reminder just how different in physicality the two were. 

He pushes the mermaid back into the sand, forcing him to spread his legs to accommodate for the large selkie’s girth but he does it wordlessly. The weight of him was welcoming, and while Jamie would be happier in the depths of the ocean where they could both float weightless he knew they literally couldn’t. He gasped as Mako’s tongue pushed its way in past his lips and teeth to dip down against his own, and he welcomed it with a subdued moan as his one good hand gripped at the back of Mako’s head.

Fingers catching in white strands, Jamie has to struggle for air as it felt like the selkie was kissing the air out of him. It left him feeling dizzy, and hot, not to mention this human body reacting to what was going on just like it had done last night. Mako’s appeared to be undergoing the very same reaction, as he could most definitely feel something hard and hot pressing itself against his inner thigh. He felt Mako grind against his leg, uttering a low moan against his lips and he answered it with his own feeble attempt to press right back but he was being pinned against the sand.

The kiss breaks and both gasp for air but neither pause for long, as Mako’s large hands are soon tugging the shirt that is far too big for Jamie off of his upper body. Jamie appreciates the help but lays back as Mako does the same for himself; true, this wasn’t the first time he’d seen the man without his shirt as he’d been shirtless the night they met, but this felt far more intimate and important. He giggles, excitedly, the toes on his one foot curling as his good hand reaches up to just touch the man’s exposed pecs, caress down to brush his thumb curiously against a nipple before gripping his side.

“Want to shift..? I don’t mind,” Mako murmured as his large hands returned to Jamie’s form, pressing themselves against his waist and pressed a thumb purposefully against the material of his pants.

“M-maybe later, I want... wanna see what it feels like, bein’ touched...”

Mako chuckled and Jamie all but made a mess of his pants at just that. It was such a deep, rich, sexual laugh. The likes of which he’d never heard. He savors the man undressing him, peeling the pants away but thankfully in their haste he forgets to remove the lone shoe Jamie wore. That would ruin the mood; suddenly revealing his foot to be bloody and dripping all this time. 

His erection was ready and waiting when Mako closed his large hand around it, but what he hadn’t expected was for his own arousal to be joined by the other man’s. Squeezed between one fist, Mako rubbed himself purposely against Jamie’s sex. This being only the second time Jamie had taken his new ‘addition’ out for such a spin, his inexperienced showed and he moaned hotly, mouth falling open as his eyes rolled back into his head. He’d never felt this before, nowhere close.

“You like that?” Mako asked, his voice barely above a whisper and dripping with charisma the likes of which Jamie had never heard.

“Feels like... m’gonna burst already,” he admitted, turning his head away as he spoke and felt the sand cling to his temple. No doubt his hair was already amassed with the granules as well. 

Mako squeezed his length again, bent down and pressed his nose against the sweaty, salty, sandy forehead of the mermaid. The scent of the sea filled his senses and his eyes all but rolled back into his head before he kissed him again. Just as hungry and desperate as the last, his tongue pushing inwards and swirled against the other mans. Breaking the kiss he drags his teeth against his bottom lip, letting go in order to speak. “Go on then.”

There’s no humiliation when his body naturally acts upon its instincts. After all he’s only experienced this once and that was in private company. He’d imagined this, of course. Mako over him, touching him, mating with him like he wanted and to have it play out so soon after his imagination had drawn up such illusions was a gift. He welcomed it, the touches to his body, the kisses against his face and neck.

“Heh...” Mako could feel the fins slowly beginning to sprout out of the sides of Jamie’s neck, and he traced his fingertips against the sensitive frills that became thicker, and more solid the longer it took. Bending down his lips trace the sensitive flesh, breathing harshly against them making Jamie moan out another beautiful sound that echoed wonderfully in the small cave. 

It wasn’t long before his lower body was its fishy self again. This wasn’t a disappointment for either of them, since for Mako, this only made the mermaid smell more of the sea than before. His so very long body easily wrapped around his middle and up over one of his shoulders, and he felt the sharp spines of his spinal fin, and guiding fins, poking against his body. He pressed his face down against the tail, shut his eyes and inhaled as if it were the most intoxicating scent.

Jamie wound up face down against the sand, anticipation running through his veins as he felt the large hands manhandling him like that night they met. Only this time there wasn’t a netting separating them, or a rush of fear that he would kill him. He arched his upper back as he felt a hand guide itself down over his entrance, and he uttered a choked sound of pleasure as he felt a probing finger push itself in past his folds of muscles and scales. He surprised himself when he pushed himself down onto it with a needy wimper.

It grew into a desperate moan when the finger was replaced with something bigger in size. The weight of Mako was pressing down against him, his long tail still wrapped tightly over his shoulder and down his back, his tail fin flared out and wagging itself against the lower back of the man. Claws dug down into the sand, pushing deeply, almost as deeply as the selkie’s sex as it pressed itself further still into his body. 

Mako breathed harshly through his nose, his large hands grasping at the wriggling, all but flailing mermaid who’d wrapped himself around his body. He’d never been with a mermaid before, Jamie was the first one he’d ever met. Now here he was, balls deep in the man’s warmth as the scent of the salty sea mixed with the smell of sweat. Mako pressed those hands closer still, the scales slippery against his hands much like the fish he would gut on dock every day. But those fish were cold and lifeless, their lives and loves now lost. Jamie though was very much alive, thrashing and pushing against him, moaning with a voice that was almost intoxicating.

Maybe it was his voice that had subconsciously drawn him to him. No, he thought for a second, that couldn’t be true. Mermaid’s song was what lured foolish men to their doom, not their speaking voice and Jamie’s voice was far from beautiful and alluring. It was high pitched, scratchy, and sometimes he sounded as if puberty hadn’t properly visited him yet. No way could his voice have drawn his attention in such a way that would end in them mating on the sand, while distant music of a festival drifted on the winds.

He grunted and felt Jamie shift against him, squeezing himself so tightly it almost felt like a clamp around his shaft. Mako offered up a low growl at the sensation, and promptly moved his hips faster, rougher, his knees digging into the sand offering little support at all. Not that he needed it; neither of them did. They were creatures of the sea, sand felt natural to them as ground did to humans. But he longed for the ocean that lapped just beyond where his feet were settled on the sand; he wished he could feel the oceans currents carrying his body like they once did.

His body convulsed and he felt his release rush through him so suddenly it tore the air from his lungs. It’s suddenness surprised even him, and he felt the mermaid squirm against and around him, gasping loudly at a sensation he’d never felt before. The last time he’d mated with someone it had taken him far longer to reach release; but maybe it was because he hadn’t been wholly committed to the act. Did that mean he’d been more taken with this, a sudden and abrupt mating like the animals they were, than with that woman?

Whatever the reason he was now spent, breathless and trembling as he was coiled tightly by the mermaid who was trembling still. Mako couldn’t even attempt to untangle himself from the other, the energy he normally had stores of gone. So he lay in the sand, Jamie’s body shifting just enough to reach up and around to touch his face with his one, trembling hand. 

They lay in one another’s arms in a very human like way, basking in a salty, sand encrusted after glow whose warmth couldn’t be diminished even with the cool ocean lapping against the sand. Yet still the music played outside, distant prattling by the people on shore who had no knowledge of the creatures who sought solace with one another in this cave. 

When they finally untangled and Mako redressed, Jamie remained how he was, watching him quietly. 

“Goin’ home?” He asked. 

“She’ll go nuts if I don’t.” Mako grunted as he picked up the bag he’d set down. Shit, the eggs were cracked. A flailing tail had smacked into them it seemed. 

“She the type to do it a lot?”

“Yes.”

As Mako began to make his way towards the mouth of the cave, he saw how dark it had gotten. He swore under his breath before the distant glow of the lighthouse illuminated him, and he rose an arm to block the light. “You going to be ok?” He cast a glance back at the mermaid. 

“Sure will!” Jamie chirped happily, sliding into the water seamlessly. “Go home to your nagging lady. See you tomorrow?” He asked hopefully. 

“Sure will.”

When Mako got back to town the festival was still going and he saw they’d gone to the bother of making fireworks too. He paused to watch the bright flares shoot into the now dark skies to erupt into bright colourful explosions of light. There were cheers of delight all around him but it seemed even this festive gathering couldn’t chase all negativity from the town. 

“It’s just not safe now.” He heard a familiar voice say. 

Mako turned his head to see Ana talking with Reinhardt. The latter spotted him and smiled in silent greeting before looking back down to the elderly woman in concern. “Yes it is bad. One has to hope all this activity would chase them out!”

“What’s going on?” Mako asked. 

“You haven’t heard? Oh, of course. After what happened to your home of course. You poor thing how is your wife holding up? Her so close to her due date!” Ana worried. 

“She’s tough. We both are.” He reassured her. 

“There are people going missing.” Reinhardt said gravely. “Three now. One each day. The authorities fear there’s a murderer in our midst.”

Mako went quiet. It had started with that young idiot hadn’t it? He didn’t show up for work but he didn’t care. But now three? His mind worked fast as he realised what mermaids feasted on out in the seas. People. Jamison was following his instincts, luring food in and eating his fill. Which was fine, that’s how mermaids work, but in the human world murder was one of the worst things to happen. 

“You’ve gone white, Mako!” Reinhardt exclaimed as another burst of red fireworks exploded over head. “I’m sorry, I did not mean to worry you my friend!”

“I have to go home to my wife.” Mako said gravely. “Can’t leave her alone now.”

“Of course so give her our love!” Ana said. 

Mako said nothing as he rushed through the crowd, eyes spotting the missing posters he’d just never noticed before. This was bad. Humans aren’t too stupid, they’d work out that when that stranger showed up that folk began to go missing. But he had one arm and leg, maybe they’d not see him as a threat? He would have to warn the mermaid to control himself, but he couldn’t find him now. Mako prayed the night would pass without anyone else going missing. 

The lights of the fireworks reflected off of the ocean brightly, illuminating the usual darkness of the sea. Jamie was enraptured by the lights, submerged beneath the waves as he watched the lights with great delight. Add that to the sheer joy he felt from the sudden tryst with the selkie. His body trembled still. He’d remember tonight for the rest of his life. 

Once again the glowing bright light from the tall building lit up the skies just as brightly as the bright coloured lights and he turned his attention to it. He swam through the water like a hot knife through butter towards the building that was all alone. It was built on an island, a very small gathering of rocks that even had a tiny pier. Jamie lifted his head out of the water, watching the building as the top of it rotated and shon the bright light over the town and all the boats. 

He sensed movement in the water and ducked back under just in time as a small boat came out of the darkness aimed at the tall house with the light. There was a man guiding the boat, wearing a yellow coat that made him stand out. Jamie’s curious nature had him linger, watching the man dock the boat and tie it to the tiny pier. But it was his beard that had his undivided attention. It was the same as the man in those photos back at Mako’s home. The same face, the same beard. Someone the lady knew. 

Jamie looked skyward as another bright flash of lights exploded, and his eyes caught the moon. It was almost full. The witches warning swam through his mind and he fretted verbally. He was almost out of time and if he didn’t get Mako his coat as promised...

The old man had made his way up the pier to the door, pushed it open and vanished inside. Going by how smooth the rocks were, this tall house had been out here a very long time. Did anyone else even come out here? Or just him?  
A house on an island surrounded by the sea. The perfect place to hide a skin. At least he hoped he was right. If he wasn’t he’d pay the price as would Mako. But Mako’s suffering outweighs his own possible suffering. And he’s going to do as his hearts always told him to do; follow his gut instinct. 

He just hoped his guts were right.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Every story has to find its end. This end involves a coat and a shark.

“You broke the eggs, I’m not surprised.”

Mako said nothing as he put the rest of the goods away, eyes down cast.

“What took you so long any way? You actually watched the festival?” she asked, lifting her head from the book she was reading on the couch. “I thought you didn’t care. You never care about anything, it’s your thing isn’t it? Good old stoic Mako, he doesn’t smile over anything.”

He closed the cupboard door and turned to look at her, hands hanging down by his sides.

“I was on the beach.”

“The beach?” she asked, scoffing. “What, dreaming of days long past?” 

Mako was silent. “I miss it.”

“You knew the risks when you came ashore. This is a lesson, showing you how you men think you know everything no matter what species you are.” she shot back. “Now you work on a dock looking at the sea thinking what, if only I hadn’t let my dick lure me here? This is your fault.”

He felt anger. He normally did when she spoke like this. It reflected not on his face, but in his hands. They went from hanging slack by his sides to clenching so tight you could see the veins pulsing on his scarred skin. He didn’t tremble, his breathing didn’t shift, but one could feel the anger bubbling beneath his surface.

She saw this and lowered her book again. “Getting mad, are we? Do you want to hit me?” the woman set her book down entirely and pulled herself to her feet, setting a hand to the small of her lower back to counterbalance the weight of her stomach. “Would you really hit your pregnant wife? Is that what an animal would do, is it?”

Mako breathed hotly through his nostrils.

“You’re smarter now, aren’t you? You know what’d happen if you did. What standing you have at work would be gone, the police would be on you, and you’d be locked up. Sealed away in a jail cell you wouldn’t even be able to stand on the sand any more. Not even the scent of the sea would reach you there. Now wouldn’t that be a wake up for you. Unclench those fists. Now.”

He did. “...if I ever get home again,” Mako spoke evenly, carefully. “I’d come back for the baby. It’s like me and it won’t be at home on your land.” and as if he would leave his child to be raised by this woman. It would not know love, not from her. 

“As if you ever could.” she snapped back. “Just stop this stupid dreaming, and talking like that. It’s bad for me to stress so much. I’d hate to go into early labor after all.” she moved back to the couch and sat back down, picking up her book again. “Be a love and make me a cup of tea?”

His eyes turned before his head did and he made his way back into the kitchen. He’d asked her in the past, all but pleaded, to be given his skin back. There’d been empty threats from him back then, too. The animalistic side of him wanted to show her who was boss; for his species, he was massive. He was intimidating and a powerful male who other selkie males knew better than to challenge to a fight. In the sea he was respected. Maybe out of fear. Maybe so. But it was better than this prison he was living in.

The man was silent as he made the tea, before treading the waters carefully by speaking. “Heard ‘bout those missing people?”

“Oh yes.” she replied as she turned the page. “Nasty business. Three people in three days; either they’re running away from this town or something nefarious is going down.” tilting her head back she looked to him. “Scary isn’t it?”

“Hm.”

“You haven’t seen any strange people on the docks have you?” she asked. “You know, strangers new to town?”

Of course he did. He knew who’d been doing it too. The one who most likely has been killing wayward people to eat, the one who broke into his own house and turned it upside down in search of a skin he had no right in looking for. All because his gut had told him to go down to the docks that night. If he had stayed in bed there’d be no problems. The mermaid would have been found by the people and dealt with.

But how? Death? Taken away for experiments? It could have easily been him in that situation, couldn’t it? If this woman chose to reveal him for what he was, he’d be carted away too. Or killed outright. This guilt and worry weighing down on him was a new sensation, stronger than the want and desire of his home again. It was powerful.

He looked out the window at the night sky, the stars twinkling in the distance and the ever familiar shining beacon of the distant lighthouse illuminating the darkness.

As the sun finally began to appear over the horizon the following morning, in the water, Jamie swam still. He had checked all around the tall house, but no matter how many times he circled it he only saw one entrance, a few windows winding up its narrow body, and that huge glowing light at the top of it. There was no sneaky way to get in; no back door, no windows to smash and crawl into. Just one way in, one way out, and doing so ran the risk of the man inside seeing him. 

The full moon was almost here now. He could feel it gazing down upon him despite the raising sun's brightness in the sky. Every second it grew closer and closer to being full and with every passing second the time he drew closer to his punishment for failure. But if he did, what would happen to Mako? Stuck in this town, stuck out of the ocean for the rest of his life. A death sentence.

That realization had him haul himself up onto the small dock. He dragged himself across the wooden planks as the ocean washed over him with another wave of water. Up to the door he dragged himself and reached up with his good hand to grab the handle, it slipped off for a second before he grappled with it a second time and felt it click and turn suddenly in his grip. The door opened outwards, and it dragged him for a second before he flopped back down onto his belly and climbed into the tall house.

It was very cramped inside; not at all like Mako’s house. While that place was clean and fairly warm and welcoming, this place was very cold. There was some living space at the base of the building where some chairs and tables sat, and a small kitchen space but literally nothing to open and turn over.

He then saw the stairs, spiralling upwards and further upwards. They were rickety and looked very old, as did the peeling paint over the bricks inside. It stunk of age that didn’t mix well with the smell of the sea right outside. The mermaid groaned as he forced himself to shift; the transformation as painful as it always was and soon he stood there with one good leg, his foot permanently bleeding.

Reaching out he grabbed the railing that wound its way up the spiraling stairs and began to climb; each hop a slippery, dangerous, and painful motion that echoed throughout the hollow interior. He grunted with each step, every hop felt like hot knives driving into his foot. And tilting his head back he looked up and saw just how high this place went. 

“Bloody Hell.”

Half way up to the top, he finds a door. And, just like in Mako’s house, he pushes it open and staggers inside and is pleased to see a chair for himself to collapse into. He has the piece of mind to shut the door behind him, also. It’s in this room that one of the middle set windows is located, he sees that it’s open letting the sea air in and ruffling the old, worn, very thin curtains that looked older than he was. What else was in the room besides a chair? Some more chairs, a table, and a few strewn around books. No closets, no cupboards, no chests. Just a respite place to stop for a breather while going up the stairs it seemed.

He leaves the room, almost slipping in the trail of blood he’s leaving, and continues to hop up the stairs in the curving spiral that seemed to stretch on forever. What time was it? How far in the sky was the sun? Where even was the old man he saw in the boat? He hadn’t seen him yet; and he knew he was here somewhere. Maybe he was at the very top...

Another door. This one is flung open and Jamie is greeted with a bedroom. There’s photos on the walls, a painting of a boat hanging over the bed, and a dresser with a matching wardrobe. Jamie wastes no time in throwing himself at the dresser first, pulling the drawers open. Which is harder than it seems as these are old drawers, swollen and wooden, scraping as they’re pulled open in such a harsh manner. The goods inside end up toppled on the floor, underwear, socks, under shirts, boxers, clothing that didn’t matter. 

And then there was the wardrobe. Old and worn, same as the stairs, same as the dresser. Jamie stumbles over the spilled under clothes and pulls the wardrobe open. The second he does he is greeted with a rush of warmth and the smell of not only dust and leather, but...

“Mako.”

There’s trench coats and jackets hanging from hangers, those that don’t matter and they’re ripped from their hangers, some even tumble with hangers still in tact, to the wooden floor boards below as he finally sees hanging behind everything else is a coat. It’s enormous. It barely hangs on the hanger its been matched to. And it isn’t like a fur coat as there is no inner lining of it like most coats. It was just all fur, smooth, sleek brown fur. The sleeves are massive and hang by its side, flared and huge like flippers.

Because that’s what they were.

Tears running down his face Jamie pulls the coat off of its hanger and the sheer weight of it brought him down to his knees. But he cradled it against his chest and it felt so warm; as if it were alive still despite being so far from its owner. Jamie squeezes his eyes shut and fights to hold back a choke of emotion.

“What the HELL is this?”

Jamie jerks around quickly, and sees the older man standing in the door. Wearing a yellow coat, matching pants, and big black boots the bearded man stands there in stunned silence now he’d announced himself. He’d heard noises downstairs, from all the way upstairs changing the oil for the light. Now he’d made his way downstairs, and outside his bedroom door he saw blood on the floor. In fact not just that, but a lot of blood on the floor; blood trailing up the stairs, but only one blood trail of footsteps. Now in his room, clothing strewn around, a naked man clutches a coat.

The coat his niece had given him; it was too big for him he’d claimed but he’d kept it regardless. 

What he didn’t expect for the naked blond man to open his mouth, and to hiss at him viciously as if he were a viper. Nor did he expect the man to suddenly change before his eyes, for scales to erupt from beneath his flesh and grow over his skin. For frills to grow, and red spines erupt from his arms and down his spine as his legs grew longer, fused together, and became one very long, dangerous tail that was suddenly thrashed and almost knocked into him. He jumped back as fast as his bones could let him as the wooden door was torn off of its hinges as the beast, still carrying the coat, came slamming out and began to rush down the stairs.

Making his way down stairs was a lot easier than going up, that’s for sure. His eyes wide and unblinking he rushes down the stairs, sliding over his own blood and no doubt getting it onto the coat but Mako’d forgive him for that. He had to, he must. Finally he burst forth onto the lower floor and bolted for the door, crashing into it and just like upstairs the door splintered under the force. The outside world welcomed him with the brightness of the sun and the spray of the oceans water as it washed up over the small dock as he hurried down it. But just as he was reaching the water he cried out as the sharp, blistering pain erupted in his lower back. The coldness of the metal pierced his flesh, and already he could feel the rush of his blood pouring from the fresh wound. Wind knocked from him he stumbled forward, the pain blinding him but did little to drop his grip on the coat clutched in his arms.

The ocean water did little to help with the burning pain in his back, and the strength of the waves carried him, more so than him swim through it as seamlessly as he normally would but he was suffering. Just like when his arm was torn from his body by that blood hungry shark; so while managing the pain was unfavourably familiar, it was so very different.

The man stood in the doorway, panting heavily, as he watched the mermaid go crashing into the water, the fishing spear wedged firmly into his lower back. It had taken all the energy he could to grab the fishing spear and run down the steps after the monster, but at least he’d hurt the creature. He grabbed his second spear and rushed to his boat, climbing into it as the water lashed up against it, slowly turning a faint shade of red as blood filled the sea.

He’s struggling now in the ocean, weighed down by the coat and the pain of a spear jutting out of his back, Jamie fights the ocean waves as he makes his way for shore. But blood in the water is never a good thing, sharks having a keenly aware sense of smell just for sniffing out blood in the water and Jamie was losing a lot of blood in the water. His energy was beginning to wane with it, bleeding out rapidly which was no help for his attempts at swimming now. Heart racing fast within his chest he swims as fast as he can, fighting both depleting energy, a heavy weight, and a metal rod sticking out of his back.

“Ah, Gregory!” Reinhardt smiled as the lighthouse man pulled up to the pier. “What brings you ashore today?”

“A monster.”

“Entschuldigen Sie?” Reinhardt blinked, slipping into German for a brief moment.

“A monster!” the man insisted as he climbed out of the boat, gripping his fishing spear in his hand tightly. “It broke into my lighthouse, stole my coat! But I shot the bastard,” the old man continued, “He’s hurt and he can’t go far surely you’ve seen it?”

“Uh...” the German man didn’t know what to say. “Been hitting the drink early today have we?”

“No!!” Gregory shouted, drawing attention even more now than before. “A mermaid, that’s what it was! Dripping blood from a fresh kill he broke in, you’re lucky he didn’t finish me off and eat me too!”

“Well, friend,” Reinhardt reached down and smacked a hand against his back. “If you shot him then he’s done for! You know how the sharks love to swim by our piers on big fishing days. And with the full moon starting tonight, the moon makes things so much brighter and easier for them to hunt! He’s probably shark food already.” best to play along with the delusional old man, honestly.

“Bah!” Gregory pulled away from him. “I’m goin’ down to the beach see if he makes it to land.” and he was off.

“Sheesh. Must be a family trait, being so stubborn. Don’t you agree Mako?” turning his head, Reinhardt looked to Mako. After all he should know; that was his uncle in law. But the expression on Mako’s face was one of abject horror. “Mako?”

Without a word Mako dropped the basket of fish he’d been carrying. And moving faster than anyone had ever seen him move, he bolted off of the pier and down onto the sand seemingly after Gregory. 

“I think the full moon’s getting to everyone early this month.” Reinhardt muttered to himself.

Running in sand is never easy, but that’s what Mako was doing now. He ran along the beach, panting heavily as he kicked up the sand with every step. His eyes scanned the water for signs of movement, for signs of blood and worse still a fin or two. If Gregory really had shot Jamie he’d be losing blood fast. And a coat. He’d stolen a coat. So that’s where it had been, the lighthouse. The one point of the entire town Mako couldn’t get to without running the risk of falling into the sea in a small boat. 

He’d lost track of Gregory; for one he wasn’t looking for him. He kept going along the sand, eyes on the water, on the ships that were moving out to leave and reach further, more open water to fish in. They didn’t seem to be seeing anything in the water either, which was good because if they did they would have given the signal and the shark warning would have sounded. A fairly loud alert that would blast over the area, ensuring anyone in the water knew to get out as fast as possible. No blood in the water was visible to them either, but that might mean he was too deep for it to be seen, which meant he might be sinking unable to swim upwards.

That’s when he saw movement at last. In the distance, by the cave the two had been in together just the other evening, was a splash of water with a flash of a metal rod piercing the surface before dipping down again. Mako began to ran towards the entrance, and he was quick to realize just how far from shore Jamie was. The closer he got, the less he saw. There’d just been that one splash and now it was gone, where had he gone? Could he even call out to him? 

The alarm sounded and it echoed over the port. 

Mako looked to the nearest boat and he saw the men pointing and following their hands he saw it, a fin tearing through the water effortlessly. This was a shark with purpose, an animal who had smelt fresh blood in the water and was hungry. The man on the shore knew this was bad but his body had little to no hesitation in it as he ran right at the water’s edge. The closer he got he saw the blood trail; it was heading inland towards the cave, exactly where he was waiting and without a thought in his mind the selkie who’d been stuck on land for months leaped into the ocean.

Panic was in his heart seconds later as the ocean crashed around him. He was already immediately beneath the surface and he felt the great weight gripping around his feet, dragging him down against the sandy ground. Seaweed seemed to coil around his ankles and up his legs, trying to halt his movements but despite the panic, Mako kept lurching forward, eyes squinting through the depths to see the mermaid. He was as he feared, struggling against the ground. The blood gushing out of him turning the water around him red, the metal rod sticking proudly out of his back. 

Mako tried to shout his name but all what came out was a muffled cry held by a flurry of bubbles erupting from his mouth. It was getting harder to breathe. The world above was nothing but muffled sounds. And the shark was approaching faster still, hungry for an easy meal of something so seriously injured it wouldn’t offer a fight.

Jamie lifted his head, his vision blurry and his body aching. Through the murky water and the blood, his own blood, he saw someone moving towards him. With seaweed wrapped around his legs he couldn’t mistaken Mako’s body for anyone else’s. With every last piece of strength the dying mermaid had in his body, he channelled it into his good arm and the big, heavy brown coat was thrown from his arm. The water carried it slowly, drifting it towards the man.

The second the coat touched Mako’s outstretched hands it was wrapping around him without hesitation. That clinging seaweed fell free, no longer needed or wanted in this punishment for the selkie had gotten his skin and he was as the ocean would accept him.

Above the waves, the men who’d spotted the shark were stood watching. The blood in the water was visible from even here now, but the shark was suddenly thrown out of the water as if it were a toy. Like it was breaching, but against its will. They shouted and called out in alarm as it went soaring and slammed back into the water, but shouted even louder when they saw what had flung the huge predator so easily.

A seal, of all things. A giant seal, massive and fat, scarred from a life of battles bellowed as it breached the water. It was quite possibly the biggest seal any of them had ever seen, and the hulking beast crashed back down into the water and tore through the water, towards the shark again, and slammed into the side of the floundering predator. The sea was filling with blood again, but this time it was from the shark as it looked as though the hulking seal had torn into one of its gills, tearing its flesh and the shark flailed in a panic churning the water to foam.

The fight between these two predators of the sea was over faster than one would imagine, as the shark was already struggling to breathe by having one side of its gills ripped out. Another few vicious assaults from the all but ravenous seal soon had the sharks body sinking to the bottom of the bay, dead.

What happened next was only seen clearly by one or two of the men. The seal bolted back towards where the shark had been targeting for, retrieved something very long and blue (they guessed a dying oarfish, as oarfish only come to shore to die) before swimming back out of the bay. It broke out into the open ocean and was gone from sight, but not out of mind. The story of the seal who killed a shark in the bay would march its way into the town’s lore and history.

Mako Rutledge was never seen again. The last they’d seen of him was rushing down the beach after Gregory. That man who still insisted to his dying day that a mermaid had broken into his lighthouse and stolen his coat, but even his beloved niece didn’t stick up for him calling him a stupid old man.

Both the shark, and Mako, became history.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry this is not the end just yet! There is an epilogue on its way my dears. Thank you for sticking with this story for so long, despite how short it is compared to my other work! I adore you all!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An Epilogue which is much needed.

"Shut up, shut up, PLEASE be QUIET!"

The toddler defied his mother, and screamed louder still to the high heavens. He had no care for the full moon outside, for the knowledge that it had been little but two years after his father's mysterious disappearance. He did not care for the stress of his mother who always had to hold him close to keep him from fretting so badly.

But tonight he was insufferable. Even placing him in the bath small enough for himself, which normally was the only thing to bring him comfort beyond food. One of her neighbors had even knocked to check if everything was alright, and nothing terrible had happened. Alas it was nothing more than a screaming child, a naughty boy who was throwing a fit without rhyme or reason.

She wanted to cry with frustration as well. It wasn't easy, leaving her son to be looked after by the neighbor while she worked down at the docks. Ever since Mako had vanished, somehow getting his coat, managing a house alone was impossible. And now being a woman who'd lost two husbands there weren't exactly a line of men awaiting her interests. This child of hers seemed fit to keep her single too, the way he shrieked and screamed.

Exhaustion finally takes her son and he's fast asleep at last around quarter to midnight. She ensures he's tucked into his cot before making her way downstairs to the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea to help settle her nerves as she always did. Add a bit of scotch to the drink as well, like usual. She was just listening to the kettle whistle when she had a sense of someone being here that shouldn't. That sense of someone standing outside the backdoor just before she heard a hand on the handle, but finding it locked, it became a sharp, hard knock.

"Who is it?" she snapped. "Who's here at this time of night?"

"Open up."

The voice almost knocked her from her feet. She knew that voice, she was haunted by it each night. Her body moves of its own provocation and she unlocks the door and pulls it open, looking upwards immediately to see the seven foot plus man standing there. Mako's shadow drowned her in its darkness, the brightness of the full moon illuminating him from directly behind making it look as though he was being blessed with some sort of halo made of nothing but the bright moon.

He was, technically, naked. He wore nothing but the coat that was his skin, the same coat that had been torn away from him and hidden far from his grasp. His long white hair was wet and hanging around his face and down his neck, doing little to hide more scars he hadn't had before. Without warning he stepped into the kitchen, shutting the door behind him. "I told you I'd come back." he says without any form of greeting, or warmth in his voice.

"...you did." she said, quietly, genuine fear in her voice.

"Where are they?"

"He's asleep. Just got him down."

She jumps back as he moves past her, travelling up the stairs, to the room he had set up for her two years ago. But she follows quickly, "What are you doing here, then? Thinking of coming back, like things were?" she asked, knowing those were nothing but hopes of hers.

"No." he says as he opens the door to the nursery and pauses to look around. The interior room has been painted to look like the sea. Yellow sand, blue water, and pale blue skies with seagulls painted on the ceiling and walls. In the middle of the room was the cot, wrapped in a dark blanket was the toddler. Stepping up to the cot, Mako looks down at his sleeping form. "I've come for him."

"Excuse me?" she asks.

"He longs for the ocean like I did." Mako replied as he bent down, scooping the child into his hands effortlessly. "I know he does. He screams for it like I wanted to." turning to look at her, he's already tucked the toddler into his coat. "He does not belong to you. He belongs to the sea and I'm taking him home."

She wants to scream at him, to attack him and tear the child away, but a large part of her is almost thankful. The child never listens to her, always disobeys, and his screams has given her little more than endless headaches and worries. He was a fairy child. A selkie child. He did not belong on land and she'd been foolish in keeping him here. She'd been foolish in many ways. "...do you even want to know his name?" she asks, quietly.

"No." Mako replies as he moves from the room. "He will pick his own name once he can. Like me. Like Jamison."

"Jamison?" she follows, heart shaking as she followed him down the stairs. "Why is that name familiar?"

"You don't need to worry." Mako makes his way out of the back door and turns to look at her. "Nothing of me is yours to care for any more. Goodbye."

She feels numb as she stands there watching the hulking, huge man walked down outside of their back garden, carrying their child away. Maybe tears were in her eyes, possibly from pain of losing her child, or maybe even celebration of it. Now there was nothing keeping her in this town. She could sell it all, and leave as she had always wanted to. She hated this town. And she would never see it again for as long as she lives.

Down at the docks, Reinhardt was working very late. He had gotten a new boat, and being a man of order and duty he was ensuring it was all prepared and ready for the next morning's first time out on the seas. He was touching up the paint of its name when he heard movement; he'd been below deck, when Mako had first pulled himself out of the ocean but now he was here to see. Turning his head, he spotted a familiar shape walking down the docks. "Mako?" he stands, "Mako Rutledge? Is that you?"

The man stops and turns, and Reinhardt sees in his arms is the toddler he knew to belong to his wife. But something about Mako gave him pause. A look in his eyes, how he stood, how he was wearing little more than a coat brown as the earth itself. But a smile brings a sense of familiarity. "Reinhardt."

"My friend," Reinhardt approached carefully, "What is happening? Where have you been? You vanished, we thought you were dead.."

"Humans are always so curious." Mako smiled softly. But he looks down at the toddler who was beginning to slowly awaken, and squirm in arms that were unfamiliar and yet recognisable. "I've come for my son. I had to wait until he was off of his mother's milk to take him."

Reinhardt had a million questions and yet he could not speak them. So he just stood there and watched as Mako lifted the child out of his coat, and peeled the pajamas from his body. What happened next he would never forget. Mako held the child in one hand, and with his other he suddenly tore a strip from his own coat and he wrapped the child in it. The child gave a startled cry, a shriek of alarm, before in Mako's hand was not a toddler but a pure white baby seal. It squeaked excitedly now, wriggling excitedly and without a seconds warning Mako dropped him into the water.

The tiny white bullet shot into the water, down into the depths. Reinhardt had watched, even stepping forward in a humane want to help a child suddenly thrown into the water but he stops himself. Lifting his gaze he sees, instead of Mako standing on the dock, a hulking, huge seal. The same seal from two years ago, the one who had fought off a shark and vanished out of the bay as quickly as it had appeared. 

"...Mako." Reinhardt whispers quietly.

The seal, the selkie, barked at him loudly before he leaped from the dock and crashed down into the depths of the bay. He swam with purpose after the speeding white form of his son, but did not have to rush for long as the squeaking pup soon darted back to him, seeming to know just by instinct who he was and how important he was. The instincts long since hidden under his human skin were finally blooming, and they'd brought him to where he truly did belong.

The squeaking pup broke the surface to breathe, held up by his father’s strong nose, before they swam further out of the bay. Further and further still they swam, and soon the sun was beginning to creep over the horizon. They were far from that town, from those humans, approaching a small island. A few trees, but below the surface were so many corals and small fish. A perfect place for a seal pup to learn how to properly swim, and hunt.

And as they approached, something came tearing out of those corals towards them. The pup squeaked as a blue scaled, red finned mermaid came barrelling out of the depths. Jamie laughed beneath the surface as he slammed into Mako, wrapping himself around the massive selkie before turning his attention to the baby.

“Just look at you!” Jamie squealed excitedly, “Aw just like your Dad ain’t ya?” he asked, reaching out to gently scratch the pups face. He squeaked at him, excitedly. A mermaid! He’d heard stories of mermaids, but never to meet one before.

Jamie was no different to how he was years ago; sure a few more scars, and the metal pole had been broken off but the metal tip remained embedded in his power back. His skin had healed around it, as he’d always done. Out here it was about survival, and if Mako hadn’t come to him, saving him in a way not unlike how he’d saved him too, he surely would have died to that shark.

But out here in the ocean, their home and birthright, Mako and Jamie both were now free.

All of them were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, we're done! This little world I created means a lot to me, and these two characters and their plights have been wonderful to play around with. Thank you every one of you who've read, left a comment, and gave me a kudos. It means a lot to me!


End file.
